Wow! It’s the holiday season again. I hope all of you receive that special Scale something you want this year.

I want to discuss starting and finishing a model.
Think about the process. If you have an ARF, your
choices are limited unless you use your imagination.

Many ARFs have identical markings and color
schemes. When you see one at the field, you’ve
pretty much seen them all. In many cases, you
can change the markings and make something
slightly different. The best advice I’ve ever received
about building a Scale aircraft is to obtain your
documentation first!

There are many choices for detailing that weren’t
available 10 to 20 years ago. You can choose stick-on vinyl letters or markings, or make them from MonoKote—especially if they are a
different size than the markings or symbols that are already on the model.

Make a pattern, place the pattern over the base color of MonoKote, then put a new

#11 blade in your hobby knife and carefully cut them out. If it’s a simple star and bar
national marking such as what
is on my Hellcat, it’s easy. The
aircraft will look more realistic
with the correct marking size.

I’ve seen several Scale ARFs that have
the markings already applied. This is
okay, but many of us want something
slightly different. My Hangar 9 P- 47 can
be made with a choice of four sets of
markings from the same fighter group,
the Eighth Air Force.

For the Pietenpol Air Camper, I
chose to use stick-on vinyl letters. I took
photos of the aircraft that I wanted to
duplicate to a local printer. The company
reviewed the photos, printed off several
fonts, and I chose the best. The final font
didn’t perfectly match, so the company
touched up the letters on the computer
and they looked great.

For my Hellcat, I changed the factory-applied color scheme slightly, used some
markings from Pro-Mark Graphics, and
finished the nose with a cat mouth. The
finishing came out nicely and has held
up for a few years.